Cartridges for electronic cigarettes are generally filled in a filling line. Generally, the cartridges contain a wad (also referred to as a “non-woven”). During the filling, the wad is impregnated with the liquid. The liquid may contain nicotine, aromas and various other substances.
The cartridges are generally filled by directing the open top end upward and filling the cartridge with a predetermined volume of the liquid. The filling itself may be difficult and time-consuming. This is partly due to the fact that the liquid substance which is injected into the cartridge has to impregnate the wad, which is a relatively slow process. The time-consuming nature is also due to the viscous nature of the liquid itself. The liquid generally has a high viscosity and density, which slows down its movement.
As a result, currently used filling devices of cartridges for electronic cigarettes are relatively slow and rather cumbersome.
To speed up the filling process, WO2015040568A1 proposes a filling device having metering chambers. It was found that this in itself is a complex and cumbersome method of filling the cartridges.
A further challenge in filling cartridges of electronic cigarettes is that the cartridges may have varying sizes. In particular the diameter of the cartridges may vary. A single filling line is generally used for cartridges of multiple sizes. When a series of cartridges of a different diameter must be filled, the filling line is converted. In order to limit the downtime, the conversion should be quite fast. It has been found quite challenging in practice to convert the filling line fast. In practice, a considerable down time of the filling line generally occurs for a conversion from one diameter to another diameter, which is disadvantageous.